One of the first steps you take when you are estimating your gardening schedule is find your USDA Zone info. The most important data that the zone info tells us is average last frost and the lowest expected temperature for your area.

A way of making a decision about when it's possible to plant purple rock cress is to look at the USDA zone info for Santa Barbara.

Planting Calendar for Purple Rock Cress

Frost tolerance for purple rock cress:	Very tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	Up to 7 weeks before last frost.

Purple Rock Cress are one of those plants that can tolerate quite a bit of cold weather which means that you can get them planted much earlier than more sensitive plants.

The earliest that you can plant purple rock cress in Santa Barbara is January. However, you really should wait until February if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant purple rock cress and expect a good harvest is probably October. Any later than that and your purple rock cress may not have a chance to grow to maturity. If you are starting your purple rock cress indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a few weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average all chance of frost has passed is on January 31 in Santa Barbara. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of 30°F.

Always keep in mind that USDA zone info for Santa Barbara is just an average and the actual date of last frost is different every year. Since half of the time in Santa Barbara you get a frost after January 31 be ready to protect your purple rock cress if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Santa Barbara

Here is the info for USDA Zone 10a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	January 31
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	December 15
Lowest Expected Low	30°F
Highest Expected Low	35°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 30°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 35°F.

Plants to Grow in Santa Barbara

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Santa Barbara.